High-rate microcrystalline silicon for solar cells

In order to produce thin silicon films for solar cells at high growth rates we deposited films with a cascaded arc expanding thermal plasma. We demonstrate the power of this technique by applying amorphous films deposited at rates up to 1.4 nm/s in solar cells. We used the same deposition technique to produce microcrystalline silicon films. Growth rates up to 3.7 nm/s are achieved. The material structure is analyzed using Raman spectroscopy and XRD. We see that the crystalline fraction increases with the H₂ flow, whereas the amorphous and the void fraction decrease.